From Shelf Awareness:
"Larry Kirshbaum, literary agent and former head of Time Warner book publishing--now Hachette Group--is becoming publisher of Amazon's New York office and will head a new general-interest imprint, according to the Wall Street Journal."

That makes 5 Amazon imprints, all pushing into print distribution and competing directly with NY publishers. I'm starting to think Amazon will soon dominate both print and digital publishing.
L.J.

I really doubt if Amazon would run into any trouble with monopoly laws by also becoming a publisher. There are hundreds of thousands of new books published annually; Amazon, even if wildly successful, could only become a seventh important player ... barring the purchase of one or more of the existing conglomerates.

I'm beginning to think that Amazon may run into trouble with anti-monopoly laws.

Not any time soon.
Their print operations have near zero market share and there is ample legal precedent (iPod) for walled-garden content ecosystems with even higher market share than Kindle.
You'll see action on the Price Fix Six before you'll see action on Amazon (and I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for either).

Now, me, I think Amazon's moves into publishing aren't aimed at the established publishers, big or small, as much as they are at Apple, B&N, and Kobo (and above all, Adobe). Think of this as equivalent to Sony owning Columbia Sudios and only releasing HD content for BluRay or owning 22 video game development studios cranking out exclusives for PS3, neither of which has drawn a shred of regulatory interest.

As I've said before, the ebook business is starting to look a lot like the video game business, with first-party exclusives, third-party timed exclusives, and all sorts of incentives to content producers.

Amazon is just beefing up their first-party lineup to make sure Kindle will always have unique content not available elsewhere.

I think we'll see a lot of fluidity between authoring, publishing, and bookselling in the next two decades. AMAZON looks like it wants to be a vertically integrated company purveying written content directly from the author to the consumer. It probably won't be the last.

I think we'll see a lot of fluidity between authoring, publishing, and bookselling in the next two decades. AMAZON looks like it wants to be a vertically integrated company purveying written content directly from the author to the consumer. It probably won't be the last.

No reason not to.
The barriers to entry are down, there are no more gatekeepers, and with publishers and agents on the verge of all-out war all bets are off. The only roles that are absolutely necessary in the new era are those of writer and reader. Everybody else has to justify their existence on a day-by-day basis. Everybody else had better by prepared to take on as much of the value add in between or be prepared to be bypassed. Not much fun ahead for those wedded to the old ways but change is no longer just coming, it is *here*.

Retailers and agents getting into publishing and publishers getting into retailing are the least of the system shocks to the "ancien regime" we'll see before the dust settle.
The big one is the end of full-credit returns.
That one is a ticking timebomb.
I'm thinking...two-three years. Four max.

One thing, though, Amazon isn't just a vertically integrated company; they are an outright conglomerate (ala GE) but focused on retailing instead of manufacturing. They sell dry goods like books and CDs, electronics and clothing, food and drugs; but also services like online hosting and storage, and even personal services. And they don't limit themselves to consumer sales, as the bulk of their services operations are (so far) corporate-focused.

If we look at their publishing ventures as a *service* they sell to authors and agents then their publishing subsidiary is pretty much a natural extension of their ebook conversion and marketting services. Essentially, they are looking to sell themselves to the authors, instead of expecting the authors to sell themselves to Amazon. A slightly different approach from that of the BPHs.

Apple, Google, Amazon, and (surprisingly as viewed today) Research in Motion. Three out of four isn't a bad prediction for four-odd years ago. Of course earlier he had picked Cisco, Intel, Dell, and Microsoft (not bad even today, excepting Dell!). Cisco, Intel, and Miicrosoft are still market giants.

I think we'll see a lot of fluidity between authoring, publishing, and bookselling in the next two decades. AMAZON looks like it wants to be a vertically integrated company purveying written content directly from the author to the consumer. It probably won't be the last.

Apparenty the Bookish web site is only available to "publisher insiders" right now... but from the looks of it, it's a cloud service for use on web browsers. No thanks!!!! Major Fail.

One thing, though, Amazon isn't just a vertically integrated company; they are an outright conglomerate (ala GE) but focused on retailing instead of manufacturing. They sell dry goods like books and CDs, electronics and clothing, food and drugs; but also services like online hosting and storage, and even personal services. And they don't limit themselves to consumer sales, as the bulk of their services operations are (so far) corporate-focused.

Not to mention Amazon's business model is so far only implemented in a handful of markets in any meaningful way. They have HUGE growth potential outside of the US despite already receiving 50% of their revenue "off-shore". Whatever you think of Amazon today ... it will be twice that in a few years.